Kunal Gupta shares his success story

“Keep asking yourself: ‘What is the best thing for my business, and am I focused on it?’” — Kunal Gupta, CEO, Polar Mobile

The Entrepreneurship 101 series kicked off 2013 with a Lived It Lecture showcasing the CEO of one of MaRS’ biggest success stories.

Kunal Gupta, CEO of Polar Mobile, built his company in 2007 during the tail end of his undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo. To date, his mobile application company has seen over 10 million downloads in a dozen countries.

In this lecture, Kunal focused on three important areas for a successful startup: finance, customers and talent. He shared his experience and offered advice to entrepreneurs on the topics of:

funding (including three tips on how to increase success when raising capital);

negotiation;

customer relations;

creating and maintaining an effective business team; and

future trends in the mobile market.

While Kunal provided insightful perspectives on entrepreneurship, he also focused on the qualities of the “person behind the venture.” His wit and charisma made his talk compelling, while also being informative.

Sketchnotes provided by Sacha Chua

Catch Kunal talk about his continuing success story, followed by an audience Q & A session here: